Spain: ‘Swindlers’? Roma Say No

By The Associated Press

April 8, 2015

Spanish groups representing Roma people began a campaign on Wednesday to remove a reference to the Roma as swindlers from the world’s benchmark Spanish dictionary. The country’s Gypsy Secretariat Foundation and others delivered protest letters to members of Spain’s Royal Language Academy, which produces the dictionary. Its most recent 2014 print edition lists “swindler” (“trapacero”) as one definition for “Gypsy” (“gitano”). The academy declined to comment but has said dictionary definitions reflect actual use and are not meant to be derogatory. It has offered the possibility of changing the forthcoming online edition to clarify that such references are pejorative.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Europe; Spain: ‘Swindlers’? Roma Say No. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe